ATOMIC FOREST - Obsession

Given the abundance of Eastern influence in Western psych-rock, India gives back with a heavy dose of acid-tinged originals and bent covers.

"Atomic Forest’s mix of blistering, fuzzy rock and synth-lead funk inspired collectors the world over to fork over thousands of dollars for original copies of their solitary release, Obsession '77. Part of the interest certainly stemmed from its liberal doses of searing fuzz guitar. Part of it sprung from the oddity of it all: had India, a country that, quite literally, churned out tens of thousands of albums during psych and hard rock’s heyday, only produced this one, lonely psychedelic album? Part of it sprung from the album’s rarity: unknown for years, Obsession '77 suddenly became a top want on every global-rock collector’s short-list." - Now-Again

"We first got wind of Atomic Forest via Academy Records' excellent comp OBSESSION, a brilliant mixing of some of the rarest and most choice psych and funk gems from around the world. The comp opens and closes with two versions of  "Obsession '77" by Atomic Forest, easily one of the most fierce tunes on the record. I've occasionally tried to find more of Atomic Forest, but with out much luck, so it's pretty exciting to see the release of this collection of searing psychedelic funk from various incarnations of Atomic Forest, 1973-77." - Primordial Sounds

VA - Mod Jazz Forever

This latest installment of the Mod Jazz series offers the same irresistible mixture of sounds which made the previous volumes so delightful. Hammond organ stompers, bluesy vocal numbers and soulful grooves abound on this compilation that works as well in the living room as on the dance floor.

"The Ace/Kent label's ongoing, if sporadic, Mod Jazz series is a fine example of how to construct an intelligent and highly enjoyable batch of anthologies spotlighting rather obscure tracks in a genre that doesn't get a great deal of attention from history books. Showcasing jazz from the 1960s with a good measure of soul (and sometimes some rock, pop, and funk influence), this is the kind of jazz that's usually more accessible than most to non-jazz specialists, though it doesn't mean jazzheads of a certain taste can't find it to their liking too." - Allmusic

"The Mod Jazz crew are back in town, and we have scoured the world to provide you with the perfect blend of jazz, with a touch of the blues, a shake of soul and a pinch of latin. As usual, we pay only lip service to genre divides, and bring you lots of great jazz vocals, often with an R&B twist." - Ace Records

DIRTY THREE - Toward The Low Sun

Three: The holy frickin' trinity. The first group number always capable of a majority vote. The power trio. The magic number.

There's something special about the number three that transcends cultures and customs, geography and generations. And music definitely gets it, too. Whether you're talking jazz or metal, three is the first number wherein one gets to experience—if the elements are just right—the beautiful way that human minds can both support and tear at one another from an always changing balance of power. Like a game of rock, paper, scissors, each instrument usually holds a characteristic edge over one, while being subservient to another. Let's examine the power trio, shall we? (This is kinda flawed as an analogy, but bear with me...) Guitar is, by virtue of frequency, far clearer (and therefore seemingly louder) than the bass. But drums are the instrument that control a guitar's ability to truly live up to the promise of its riffs in the eyes of an audience. And yet without the bass, the drums usually lack the rhythmic support and constance to achieve a blissful groove. Anyway...there must be something to it, right?

Dirty Three think so, but the manner in which—over the course of eight albums and numerous EPs— they've taken the above parameters and turned them inside out has been nothing short of utterly unique. And at the risk of incurring the wrath of my eleventh-grade English teacher, I'm not being flippant here: there is NO band out there that sounds like these guys do. And a lot of it has to do with the way that they use the power of three to their advantage.

Three generally works because you can have one musician each responsible for one of the basic elements of rock: 1. the high end; 2. the low end; 3. the beat. But Dirty Three don't care 'bout no three elements. Supplanting the bass guitar with a violin is the instrumental trio's first bold move, but they're just getting started. Each player then uses their playing to crap all over the most sacred commandments of their chosen tool. 

Warren Ellis—even at his most tender—is a vio-lent-inist, wielding his bow in a manner that tears at the very literal and figurative fabrics of his strings and melodies. Far from being mannered or precise, he is the aggressive dramatist of their music—squealing, crying, sighing, spitting with love and pith. An outback Oscar Wilde who sucks the dusty marrow from every last inch of his own sorry bones.

Then there's Jim White, the drummer. Solid, controlled...no way. White drifts and slides, scuffs and trips, stampedes across his taunt drum skins like the feet of a hundred thousand beetles carrying a wounded elephant  on their backs. He and Ellis stand musically facing each other. One pushes. The other pulls. Ellis bows left, White slams right. At the centre of this teasingly tottering dance—the fulcrum of their seesaw—is...the guitarist? The most unreliable timekeeper in music?

And yet, this too is true, for Mick Turner is the keel, the ballast, the root of Dirty Three's confounding configuration. As still musically as he is on stage, Turner paints (both in real life and here) the unacknowledged arch of stage under which Ellis acts and White dances. It is a truly selfless role, but one that the band would be hopelessly lost without—all grand gestures and physical emoting without any context.

If we're being truthful, Toward The Low Sun, their first record in seven years, is not their best record. But from a band as peerless as this (and promising a fix as unique as they do), it's still a damn sight better than most of what you'll find out there. And, if their recent extended absence has left you one of the uninitiated, it just might be the perfect way to ease you into their catalog. (Should you then find your curiosity piqued, may I present the three best Dirty Three albums, in no order, of course: Horse Stories; Whatever You Love, You Are; Ocean Songs.)

FIELD MUSIC - Plumb

Considering that their last effort—the superb Measure—was this writer's fave album of two years ago, I'm more than a little excited by the Sunderland band's latest arrival. Often, it is this type of setup that leads to a burst bubble or two, and it needs to be said: that Plumb doesn't quite, well, measure up to its predecessor. Much of this, however, has to do with pure numbers.

Even though it was a little under the radar, Measure was a behemoth 20-song, 80-minute album, towering over not only the rest of the band's catalogue, but many other records of its ilk at the time. This grand, proggy ambition was stunningly tempered by the fact that it was peppered with song after song of memorable melody and lithe, spiky riffs. Plumb is half Measure's overall length—in effect, it's that record compressed—but has only five less songs. Quick math tells you something has to give. In this case, it's the way that Plumb 's tiny songs refuse to settle on any one tack for long.

So whether it's an a capella section ("How Many More Times?"), a jittery bout of tom-tom driven rock ("It's Okay To Change"), or a slice of chamber pop ("Sorry Again, Mate"), if you blink, you'll often miss it. Of course, the funny thing about Field Music (and what ultimately saves them) is that for all of their restlessness and the rapidity with which they apply and then dispense with their ideas, they're a very beautifully nuanced and classic British pop band. From XTC and The Jam to The Stranglers and Orange Juice (and more than a little bit of Yes), the UK's tuneful musical DNA is always with these guys. Underneath all of Plumb's constant shapeshifting, there is a songcraft that rewards one's trust. 

And if it's a bit ironic that it's the double album that is the more immediately accessible of their past two, that's just part of the beauty of Field Music—a band that plays from pop's great songbook as it eagerly rips it up.

KRONOS QUARTET - Music of Vladimir Martynov

Be sure not to miss the Kronos Quartet playing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saturday, March 3, 2012 as part of the New Creations Festival. They'll be playing a specially-commissioned piece by Canadian composer Derek Charke. That piece isn't on their latest album, which instead features the work of Vladimir Martynov (whose opening piece The Beatitudes is especially sublime).

"In 1979, Vladimir Martynov entered the Spiritual Academy at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, where he worked on preserving and restoring traditional Russian Orthodox chant. He returned to composition in the 1990s with a new style that combined the traditions of American minimalism with the repetitive chant of Russian Orthodoxy. As Greg Dubinsky writes in the liner notes, Martynov explores the 'perspective of the Orthodox Church’s hermetic, ascetic tradition of insight and ecstasy achieved through ceaseless prayer. His goal is to create a music that maintains this pose of enraptured contemplation for as long as possible.'" - Nonesuch

"Martynov's commissioned compositions include a re-scoring of his 1998 work The Beatitudes, Schubert-Quintet (Unfinished), and Der Abschied. Schubert-Quintet (Unfinished) is influenced by Schubert's String Quartet in C Major, and allows Kronos Quartet to reunite with former cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. In it, Martynov goes backwards in time, meeting Schubert and then extending his thought into a modern composition that highlights the power found in the interaction of two cellos. Der Abschied is a tribute to Martynov's father, and the piece replicates his father's difficult final breaths through its use of repetition." - The Violin Shop

MARVELOUS DARLINGS - Single Life

For those who missed out on their numerous singles over the last few years (or simply aren't the obsessive 7" collector type), Marvelous Darlings have done us all a favour and collected sixteen A and B sides on one CD/LP!

"Best known for his time in Fucked Up and No Warning, bristling busybody Ben Cook has countless other projects on the go at all times. Since 2007, one of them has been the punky power pop group Marvelous Darlings. Whether you're a longtime Darlings fan or a newcomer, there's plenty to chew on with this comp." - Exclaim!

"Over 16 tracks (plus five demos), there’s not a single weak link–an impressive feat considering that the simplest-sounding, catchiest pop songs are often the most difficult to write. The tracks all teem with hummable hooks, and because they were all intended as singles, the energy level never drops." - NOW

VA - Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets

Sixties British Mod sounds encompassed hard-edged r'n'b and swingin' blue-eyed soul, as well as Who-ish freakbeat power pop. Looking Back provides an excellent and comprehensive overview of all these styles over the course of three CDs.

"A mammoth eighty-track compendium of the finest (mostly) British Mod sounds of the '60s, housed in a clambox with a 48-page booklet, Looking Back boasts a smattering of previously unissued gems from the likes of A Wild Uncertainty, Tony Rivers & The Castaways, The Thoughts, The Trekkas and The Knave, compiled and annotated by Paul Weller biographer and long-time Mod observer John Reed and designed by Andy Morten (Shindig! magazine, Rev-Ola)." - Cherry Red Records

THE APOLLAS - Absolutely Right! The Complete Tiger, Loma and Warner Bros. Recordings

Two songs in, the Wall Of Sound hits with "Who Would Want Me Now," a deep soul ballad that brings to mind the intensity of Loraine Ellison's "Stay With Me." The remaining 24 tracks here also impress, and make you wonder how much soul/funk is still out there waiting to be discovered! The big reissue surprise of 2012 so far.

"On a remarkably consistent five-year span of singles from 1963 to 1968, this Bay Area-born gal trio indulged equally in searing balladry, gritty gospel laced-R&B, and infectious pop, mastering them all with soulful aplomb. Absolutely Right! contains the Apollas’ impeccable mid-'60s oeuvre collected in one place, with the unexpected bonus of several unissued cuts, including Leola Jiles’ heartbreaking masterpiece 'I’ve Got So Used To Loving You.'" - Ace Records

VA - Smash Boom Bang! The Songs and Productions of Feldman, Goldstein & Gottehrer

Running the gamut from raucous garage rock to girl-group pop, Smash Boom Bang! showcases the infectious songs and productions of New York City tunesmiths Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer.

"Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer made loud, drum-and-handclap-infused pop in the first half of the '60s. Not known for subtlety, they took much from the likes of Bo Diddley and Gary 'US' Bonds and pushed the power up to 11, as evidenced on The Sheep's 'Hide And Seek,' arguably the loudest, most in-your-face two minutes in pop." - Record Collector

"If you don’t know the names of Messrs. Feldman, Goldstein and Gotteher, you’ll undoubtedly know 'My Boyfriend’s Back,' 'Hang On, Sloopy' and 'I Want Candy,' and you just might be surprised to find that all three songs were the work (either in songwriting, production or both) of the same team. Smash Boom Bang!  takes its name from three prominent labels, the last of which was founded by Bert Berns.  As Berns’ tragically short-lived career has already been anthologized by Ace, this collection makes the perfect companion to those earlier two volumes." - The Second Disc

THE CARETAKER - Patience (After Sebald)

This newest release on James Leyland Kirby's History Always Favours The Winners imprint has him once again donning his Caretaker guise, and these detourned piano pieces are a classical gas (or maybe more of a gauze, come to think of it—click here to sample this album's outtakes, the supplemental mini-album Extra Patience).

"Leyland Kirby's most recent effort, much like, but unique from, those released previously, exists as a faded daguerreotype of passing time and time passed. Commissioned as the score for Grant Gee's most recent film  [of the same name], it's an amorphous miasma of echoing antiquity, evoking a time prior to the advent of colour film as a crackling grey scale roll." - Exclaim!

"James Kirby's discography as The Caretaker is essentially variations on a theme, but you never quite know what you're going to get out of him. This time around, Kirby has chosen recordings of Franz Schubert works circa 1927 and repurposed them via his usual mix of gentle processing and decay, but here the lines are blurred more than ever between artifacts of age and purposeful manipulation." - Resident Advisor

JOHN K. SAMSON - Provincial

In an era of ever-increasing sonic cross-pollination and general weirdness, Samson is one of scant few songwriters who are more appreciated for their lyrics than anything else. Which is kind of another way of saying that even the most acclaimed indie musicians today tend to be weakest at crafting their words. Over the course of four Weakerthans albums, Samson has encountered no such difficulty, deftly navigating the rocky channel that travels between the shores of the everyman and the hyper-literate. As for their music, however, it's only fair to say that while melodically sound and technically brilliant (Jason Tait is oft-referred to as the smoothest drummer in Canadian rock), the Weakerthans were never much for innovation.

It's perhaps a bit of a naive wish, then, to hope for a sonic facelift to accompany Samson's first widely released solo album, Provincial. Like most solo releases by the singer/songwriter of a straight-up rock band, this album is pretty much everything our man does in his day job, only turned down to 7 (rather than up to 11, I suppose...). Of course, when we all know that the main attraction will likely be the words, this is hardly a bad thing. And so, despite being a tad samey-sounding, this record is beautifully and attentively written. Even when being so red-flag intellectual as to reference a master's thesis and a website URL in his song titles, Samson never forgets to root his tales in human experience and details—and so grand plights of forgotten towns and a province in fading fortunes are told through minute moments of busted cars, awkward romances and, of course, hockey. In doing so, he once again proves himself as the rare kind of musician who can seamlessly weave threads of politics, sports, domestic life, and punk clubs into a complete and whole tapestry. It's an unassuming little trick, but no matter how many times Samson does it, it never ceases to gently amaze. The guy really is something.

That said, the extra ballast his Weakerthans chums bring to his tunes is at times missed. "Cruise Night" is a tepid counterpart to such out-and-out great pop songs as "Watermark" or "The Reasons," and I can't help but wonder how the sense of drama that so enlivened "Pamphleteer" would sound behind a track like "The Last And." But overall, Samson wears the solo artist tag very comfortably indeed—if it seems too much so on first listen, give it time. Whatever Provincial lacks in audio thrills, it makes up for with a depth of storytelling and observation that few peers appear to have the time (or skill) to bother with these days.

WENDY RENE - After Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-65

Light In The Attic has been on a tear (ha) this past year, with recent reissues and archival finds from the likes of Charles "Packy" Axton, Jim Ford, the Louvin Brothers, Shin Joong Hyun, the Mowest imprint, and Michael Chapman, but we were especially excited and surprised to see this anthology on the label's release schedule!

"This will be the first ever anthology of the mysterious Southern soul queen who cut some of the most achingly gorgeous 45s on Stax and Volt back in the day. While she’s been sampled to death by everyone from the Wu-Tang Clan to Alicia Keys and covered by Lykke Li, little is known about the singer’s short but brilliant career until now. After 45 years spent decidely out of the spotlight, we’re grateful to have Wendy involved in putting together this special anthology, which includes all of her singles and close to a dozen rarities." - Light In The Attic

"Much of Rene's work was recorded when she was in high school (and after she quit), and you can hear it in her voice, which is breathtakingly clean and pure, filled with the sense that she's singing with every ounce of her body. Part of the collection's urgency too is because of the backing band: the tracks feature the Stax session players Charles "Packy" Axton and the members of Booker T. and the MGs at the peak of its powers, including Steve Cropper on guitar and Booker T. Jones on organ." - L.A. Times

HOSPITALITY - S/T

With this debut full-length following a 2008 self-released EP which likely did not garner much attention outside of the band's native NYC, Hospitality introduce themselves to the world at large as the sort of pop group that comes by its mild yet compelling oddness honestly. From the Anglo edges of singer/songwriter Amber Papini's pronunciation (an aspect of their sound which could draw comparisions to Merge labelmates Camera Obscura and The Clientele, as well as such other Brit bands past and present as Belle and Sebastian, The Sundays, and Life Without Buildings) to creative production touches (additional saxes/synths/etc. as required) somewhat reminiscent of a range of contemporaries as varied as Deerhoof, St. Vincent and Spoon, there's a gentle subversiveness throughout this record that drew this writer in, ever more helpless to resist with each repeat listen. While there are plenty of upbeat tracks bound to immediately grab certain listeners, others may fall first for the slowburn lulls ("Julie", "Sleepover" and "Argonauts") where Papini's unshowy gifts for melody and emotional ambivalence might be best deployed.

VA - On With The Show: The Johnny Otis Story, Volume 2 (1957-1974)

As much as we urge those who have yet to hear Midnight At The Barrelhouse to also give that first volume a listen, some of the most irresistible moments on this second set might be when Otis and band tackle R&B rhythms popularized by other outfits, putting their own hep and savvy spin on them, whether the Bo Diddley beats of "Mumblin' Mosie," "Crazy Country Hop," "Hand Jive One More Time" and, well, "The New Bo Diddley," or the "Tramp"-ed up, lip-smacking "Country Girl."

"On With The Show lives up to its title by picking up Johnny’s story from just before where the first volume left off, and carrying it through to the mid-'70s – the point at which he stopped releasing new music and began diversifying his talents into cultural, spiritual and political areas.

Johnny found that he was fighting a losing battle as R&B began to get pushed off the charts by early '60s pop and, subsequently, Mersey Beat. But he still made great music whether the public bought it or not, and On With The Show contains many of the most enduring Otis classics in Johnny's massive catalogue, such as "Castin' My Spell," "Crazy Country Hop" and "Mumblin' Mosie."

The second half of the CD chronicles Johnny's creative renaissance via the 1969 Cold Shot album and its chart single "Country Girl." It also features early groundbreaking performances by his teenage son and nascent guitar hero Shuggie, and several cuts that have latterly become much played rarities on the funk and jazz scenes." - Ace Records

VA - The FAME Studios Story 1961-73 / GEORGE JACKSON - Don't Count Me Out: The FAME Recordings Vol. 1

Ace/Kent's sequel of sorts to 2008's Take Me To The River: A Southern Soul Story 3CD set, The FAME Studios Story hones in on Muscle Shoals' golden era, while Don't Count Me Out further focuses on George Jackson's peak years at the studio, from 1968 to 1972.

"The FAME Studios Story 1961-1973 is an exhaustive 3CD set derived from two years’ worth of excavations by the intrepid Ace team at the hallowed FAME vault. The result is a full programme of FAME-related releases slated for issue on Ace, Kent, and BGP over the next couple of years, but the lynchpin is this definitive anthology that focuses upon the halcyon days of the studio and the label. It’s an open-minded, celebratory overview that, across 75 tracks, spotlights both artists and records that are either acknowledged greats, or lesser known – yet no less worthy – entries in the lexicon of soul." - Ace Records

"Rick Hall, who owned FAME, knew that if a top soul artist was coming into the studio and some songs were needed, then George Jackson was the man. He was valued so much as a songwriter that his career as a singer was sadly neglected, and only two 45s were issued during his long association with FAME. Luckily for us, Rick Hall held on to a truckload of the other recordings George cut at FAME which have remained in the vaults until Tony Rounce, Dean Rudland and Alec Palao plucked them from the shelves for this terrific release and several future volumes." - Ace Records

THE BATS - Free All The Monsters

Fans of seminal jangle-pop band The Clean were spoiled rotten in 2011 with excellent records from founding members David Kilgour (Left By Soft) and Robert Scott (Ends Run Together). Now there's even more to be thankful for, with the appearance of an album by Robert Scott's other band The Bats; it may be the best of the bunch.

"The Bats are back to remind us how sweet, lovely and connective pop songs can be. Titled Free All The Monsters, the band’s eighth album shows them in top form. Recorded at Seacliff, a former asylum in the grand Victorian style just outside of Dunedin, New Zealand, and masterfully produced by Dale Cotton, it captures some of their strongest songs to date." - Flying Nun

"In their 30 years as a band, The Bats have made only eight full-length records. There are years, even occasional decades, between the band’s statements, gaps that reflect other musical obligations (Robert Scott is in a half-dozen other projects, including The Clean), work, children and family life. Free All The Monsters comes only three years after The Guilty Office, a relatively short span in Bats terms. (It was 10  years between Couchmaster and National Grid.) It sounds very much like The Guilty Office, and, in fact, very much like The Bats have always sounded—a jangle and clatter subdued somehow into melancholy introspection." - Dusted

CASS McCOMBS - Humor Risk

April 2011's Wit's End may have edged out this even more recent entry from Cass McCombs as far as inclusion in our Staff Best of 2011 list went, but it could be argued that with an added pep and immediacy to its riffs leavening his oft-odd lyricism this time around (nevermind that there are riffs to be found on this more-rock-than-folk outing), Humor Risk could be the more approachable album of the pair.

"McCombs must be given credit for his ability to surprise; Humor Risk, his sixth album, comes only seven months after Wit’s End and could not possibly be more different despite sharing producer Ariel Rechtshaid and a handful of collaborators. In fact, it’s practically Wit's End's inverse; it offers the same number of songs, yet trades its predecessor’s icy austerity for warmth and motion, making it a welcome surprise from a musician who proves himself less and less predictable with every record." - Coke Machine Glow

"It’s very evident that Wit's End and Humor Risk have two different feels. Although Wit's End is more cohesive atmospherically and production-wise, Humor Risk is the better representation of McCombs as a songwriter in the 'classic' realm. His folk-rock approach never sounds stale, and when it does, it’s always due to strategic repetition." - Obscure Sound

KIM JUNG MI - Now

When Light In The Attic compiled Beautiful Rivers And Mountains this past fall, an anthology of tracks led by/produced by/featuring Shin Joong Hyun, many of us on staff here were especially struck by "The Sun," a track featuring the vocals of psych-folk songbird Kim Jung Mi; we're glad to now have the chance to listen to this reissue of Now, Mi's 1973 full-length effort produced by Shin.

"At the dawn of the 1970s, South Korea’s rock music scene was at its zenith. Much of the reason for this was the god-like musical touch of guitar wizard, songwriter, producer, and arranger Shin Joong Hyun. For this album, he took a young girl named Kim Jung Mi, and transformed her from a wallflower student into a folk-psych chanteuse in record time (if Francoise Hardy is the Marianne Faithful of France, then Kim Jung Mi is, I suppose, the Francoise Hardy of Korea)." - Light In The Attic

"Kim Jung Mi's Now is probably one of the oddest albums I've ever heard. That's not because Now sounds especially exotic, though. On the contrary, it's because it doesn't. The point isn't that the album is derivative. It's that it's familiar. When I listen to 'Lonely Heart,' for example, I feel like I'm hearing something for the thousandth time, even though I can't exactly put my finger on where. It's too psych for Sandy Denny, not bluesy enough to be Janis Joplin, not smoky enough for the pop cabaret of Julie London, not over-carbonated enough to be Serge Gainsbourg—but it's somewhere in a world where all those things are on the jukebox." - Splice Today

GUIDED BY VOICES - Let's Go Eat The Factory

Try as we might to deny it, none of us is immune to the powers of sentimentality. For a good handful of us (this writer included), this knee-jerk response simply can't be overlooked in the curiosity about this record.

Do I even need to go into the reasons why? If you're on this site, probably not but just to be safe... Let's Go Eat The Factory represents the first album by the 'classic' line-up of Guided By Voices since 1996's exceptional (and, in my opinion, career best) album Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. While GBV (led by the human songwriting vending machine that is Bob Pollard) would go on to record many more albums with different personnel, it was the line-up of Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennel and Greg Demos that turned indie rock on its ear in the mid-'90s.

The magic of this equation centred around two key elements: spartan, hissy home recording, and an uncanny ability to unleash literally dozens of exceptional pop hooks through songs that lasted only as long as it took to express them. For example, 1995's Alien Lanes contains a mind-bending 28 songs in only 41 minutes. And unlike hardcore albums with a similar work rate, this trait had nothing to do with either speed or a blurring sameness of the material—these records were wildly unpredictable, leaping from muscular arena rock to mini-prog suites to surreal psych and anywhere else they fancied. Though the group spawned a legion of imitators, they were quite unlike any other band.

So it's not surprising that even though Pollard had never stopped releasing albums since GBV's official end in 2004 (and at the rate of about four a year!), many of us who had left the group behind are emotionally drawn back to the band by this news. And Let's Go Eat The Factory does replicate some of their fabled magic, in that it at least sounds the part. After Bushes saw the career basement-dwellers begin to embrace the professional studio, the band grew increasingly distanced from their trademark lo-fi style. Although Pollard has been all over it in his solo releases since, it's a real jolt just to hear how scrappy Factory sounds. This low production value works hand-in-hand with the charmingly less-than-tight performances to create an atmosphere that truly is reminiscent of classic GBV. Loose, impulsive, messy...love it.

Where it's not quite up to snuff is in the songs themselves. As unorthodox as both '94's breakthrough Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes were, they were also relentless in their presentation of hit after hit after sun-warped hit. In this respect, Factory has more in common with the records that led up to that breakout pair, Vampire On Titus and Propeller—good records, but ones with more than their fair share of filler. So while "The Unsinkable Fats Domino," "Imperial Horseracing," "Laundry and Lasers" and "Hang Mr. Kite" are all pretty great, many others sound like these newly reformed gents are still struggling to find that magic balance between spontaneity and quality control (the latter admittedly never a GBV strong suit, even at their peak).

If there's one truly magical thing about Factory though, it's the return of Tobin Sprout. Just hearing his voice again on a GBV record is cause for celebration—his gentle boyish tenor always an appealingly contemplative foil to Pollard's brazen, cocky obfuscation. His contributions, like "Spiderfighter," "Old Bones" and "Waves" are some of the LP's best, and put into sharp relief just how much he's been missed by the band (and Pollard) over the past fifteen years.

With another disc apparently already recorded and ready to go in May, it seems like this reunion may be a bit more than a passing fancy. If that's the case, I wouldn't bet against Factory being the harbinger of even better things to come. In other words, Bee Thousand II this is not, but hey, it's only January...

OXFORD AMERICAN - 13th Annual Southern Music Issue

Whether the holiday season takes you out of town or lets you do your running around at home this year, Oxford American's music issue is a trustworthy travel companion, stuffed with approachably academic takes on the artists and cultures of the Southern states by a star-studded cast of critics (focusing this year on the Magnolia state, Mississippi). A must-read and a fantastic gift idea, complete with an equally informative and entertaining 27-track companion CD compilation.